This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Applications No. 2001-292866, filed Sep. 26, 2001; and No. 2002-052771, filed Feb. 28, 2002, the entire contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a destination guidance system for guiding in a building with a complicated structure such as a railway station, underground area, and the like, a destination guidance data acquisition system for acquiring information required for guidance, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a route guidance system that guides the user from a place of departure to a destination has become prevalent. As a typical example of such a system, a car navigation system is known. Also, some types of route guidance systems for pedestrians have also been commercially available. For example, a portable terminal with a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver has been released, and a system that gives route guidance on the basis of position information of the user has been introduced. Furthermore, a system with which the user receives route guidance by explicitly designating a place of departure and destination using a PC, portable terminal, and the like has been introduced.
In such route guidance systems, guidance routes are manually prepared in advance. However, in this system, the guidance range is limited. For this reason, most systems search a pedestrians route network purchased from a map company to automatically generate a guidance route.
In contrast, a system that guides in a building such as a railway station, underground area, or the like is not so prevalent at present. As an example of a system that has been introduced currently, a system that shows train cars that stop near stairs and their doors is available in some railway stations. However, this system can only guide from the platform of a departure station to that of a destination station using text prepared in advance. Therefore, this system cannot automatically generate an individual route in a railway station, that can be provided to each user.
At some subway ticket gates, photos are displayed to show surrounding landscapes at the top of the stairs. Furthermore, a system that gives route guidance by creating a pseudo three-dimensional space by pasting and interpolating some photos of landscapes on the premises of a building or construction is available. However, since each photo is information that indicates only a landscape from a given viewpoint, they cannot provide a global image of the building or route guidance to a destination.
In addition, a service that guides using a map obtained by 2.5-dimensionally deforming a three-dimensional structure of a building is available. However, with this service, guidance routes are manually prepared in advance, and the service does not automatically generate a route in accordance with the place of departure and destination individually designated by the user upon guidance.
In this way, the conventional destination guidance system does not automatically generate each individual route in accordance with the place of departure and destination individually designated by the user upon guidance. Also, the system provides neither a global image of the building nor route guidance to a destination in accordance with the movement of the user. For this reason, such a system is not suitable for transfer guidance in a large-scale railway station where long-distance and shuttle trains cross, guidance of an underground area, and the like. As one of the causes of such difficulty, it is difficult to automatically generate a guidance route since there are innumerable lines along which pedestrians can go in a broad space (to be referred to as a broad-area site hereinafter) such as the vicinity of ticket gates, concourse, and the like in a railway station.
As one of solutions to the aforementioned problems, a method disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-298034 can be applied. In this method, a route network with a mesh pattern is formed in a broad-area site, and a route is generated by searching the network. However, with this method, it is difficult to uniquely determine parameters such as components, resolution, and the like of the mesh. For example, quite different routes are generated depending on whether each component of the mesh is defined by a rectangle or a triangle obtained by dividing the rectangle by a diagonal line. On the other hand, when the mesh has a low resolution, the computation volume required for route search decreases, but unnatural detour route may be generated. In contrast, if the mesh has a high resolution, a detour route can be prevented from being generated, but the computation volume increases. In this manner, in the method using the network in the mesh pattern, parameters to be assigned must be determined by trial and error in correspondence with the shape of the broad-area site.
As another solution, a method of generating a route by bending the traveling direction of light rays, that are emitted forward from the current place, toward a destination, and tracing the first vertices that intercept the light rays is available (Pedestrian Information Providing System: Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-319839). However, this method cannot generate a plain route for the user since it has no scheme for decreasing the number of turning points included in a route, determining a route that goes by a distinctive landmark, and so forth.
The present invention has been made to solve the aforementioned problems, and has as its object to provide a destination guidance system that automatically generates and presents an individual route in accordance with the place of departure and destination designated by each user, and the like.
The present invention may provide a destination guidance system utilizing a structure on premises of a building, which comprises: a structure information memory which stores structure information corresponding to information pertaining to the structure on the premises of the building, the structure information including a plurality of guide points on the premises of the building, and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points; a guidance information memory which stores first guidance information including landmark data and landscape data concerning a plurality of approach and exit directions to and from each of the guide points; an input unit configured to make a user input a desired place of departure and destination; a recommended route generation unit configured to generate a recommended route, which is recommended upon movement from the place of departure to the destination, by selecting and connecting at least one of the route data stored in the structure information memory; a presentation information generation unit configured to extract second guidance information concerning the plurality of the approach and exit directions to and from at least one guide point, which is present on the recommended route, from the first guidance information in the guidance information memory, and to generate presentation information that contains the second guidance information; and a presentation unit configured to present the presentation information.
The present invention may provide a railway station destination guidance system utilizing a structure on the premises of a railway station, which comprises: a structure information memory which stores structure information corresponding to information pertaining to the structure on the premises of the railway station, the structure information including a plurality of guide points on the premises of the railway station, and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points; a guidance information memory which stores guidance information, the guidance information including landmark data and landscape data which concerns a plurality of approach and exit directions to and from each of the guide points; an input unit configured to make a user input a desired place of departure and destination; a recommended route generation unit configured to generate a recommended route, which is recommended upon movement from the place of departure to the destination, by selecting and connecting the route data stored in the structure information memory; a presentation information generation unit configured to extract second guidance information concerning the plurality of the approach and exit directions to and from at least one of the guide points, which is present on the recommended route, from the first guidance information in the guidance information memory, and to generate presentation information that contains the second guidance information; and a presentation unit configured to present the presentation information.
The present invention may provide a server apparatus which generates information pertaining to guidance on the premises of a building and sends the information to a user terminal and utilizes a structure on the premises of a building, comprising: a communication device configured to communicate with the user terminal; a structure information memory which stores structure information corresponding to information pertaining to the structure on the premises of the building, the structure information including a plurality of guide points on the premises of the building and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points; a guidance information memory which stores first guidance information, which includes landmark data and landscape data concerning a plurality of approach and exit directions to and from each of the guide points; a recommended route generation unit configured to generate a recommended route, which is recommended upon movement from a place of departure to a destination input from the user terminal, by selecting and connecting at least one of the route data stored in the structure information memory; and a presentation information generation unit configured to extract second guidance information concerning the plurality of the approach and exit directions to and from at least one of the guide point, which is present on the recommended route, from the first guidance information in the guidance information memory, and to generate presentation information which contains the second guidance information and is sent to the user terminal via the communication device.
The present invention may provide a user terminal communicating with a server apparatus which generates information pertaining to guidance on a premises of a building, comprising: an input unit configured to input a desired place of departure and destination on the premises of the building; a communication device configured to send the place of departure and destination to the server apparatus, and to receive the information pertaining to guidance on the premises of the building from the server apparatus; and a presentation unit configured to present the information pertaining to guidance on the premises of the building.
The present invention may provide a destination guidance method comprising: storing structure information corresponding to information pertaining to a structure on the premises of a building, the structure information including a plurality of guide points on the premises of the building, and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points in a guidance information memory; storing first guidance information, which includes landmark data and landscape data concerning a plurality of approach and exit directions to and from each of the guide points; making a user input a desired place of departure and destination; generating a recommended route, which is recommended upon movement from the place of departure to the destination, by selecting and connecting at least one of the stored route data; extracting second guidance information concerning the plurality of the approach and exit directions to and from at least one of the guide point, which is present on the recommended route, from the guidance information in the guidance information memory; generating presentation information that contains the guidance information; and presenting the presentation information.
The present invention may provide a computer readable memory storing a guidance program, the guidance program comprising: first store means for causing a computer to store structure information corresponding to information pertaining to a structure on the premises of a building, the structure information including a plurality of guide points on the premises of the building and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points; second store means for causing a computer to store guidance information, which includes landmark data and landscape data for a plurality of approach and exit directions to and from each of the guide points in a guidance information memory; first generation means for causing a computer to generate a recommended route, which is recommended upon movement from a place of departure to a destination which are input from a user terminal, by selecting and connecting at least one of the stored route data; second means for causing a computer to extract guidance information concerning the plurality of the approach and exit directions to and from at least one of the guide points, which is present on the recommended route, from the guidance information memory, and for generating presentation information that contains the guidance information; and means for causing a computer to send the presentation information to the user terminal via a communication device.
The present invention may provide a destination guidance data acquisition system which comprises: a presentation unit configured to present a structural drawing on the premises of a building; a structure information generation unit configured to generate structure information by designating a plurality of guide points on the premises of the building and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points on the structural drawing on the premises of the building; a structure information memory which stores the structure information; a guidance information generation unit configured to generate guidance information by inputting landmark data or landscape data, which serve as landmarks in a plurality of line-of-sight directions upon approaching or existing from each of the plurality of guide points of the structure information; and
a guidance information memory which stores the guide information for each of the guide points.
The present invention may provide a destination guidance data acquisition terminal which acquires information pertaining to guidance on the premises of a building, and sends the acquired information to a server, comprising: a presentation unit configured to present a structural drawing of the premises of the building; a structure information generation unit configured to generate structure information by designating a plurality of guide points on the premises of the building and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points on the presented structural drawing of the premises of the building; a guidance information generation unit configured to generate guidance information by inputting landmark data or landscape data, which serve as landmarks in a plurality of line-of-sight directions upon approaching or existing from each of the plurality of guide points of the structure information; and a communication device configured to send the structure information and the guidance information for each guide point to the server.
The present invention may provide a destination guidance data acquisition server which acquires data pertaining to guidance on the premises of a building in accordance with an input from a destination guidance data acquisition terminal, comprising: a communication device configured to communicate with the destination guidance data acquisition terminal; a structure information memory which stores structure information corresponding to information received by said communication device, the structure information being generated by designating a plurality of guide points, and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points on a structural drawing of the premises of the building; and a guidance information memory which stores, for each guide point, guidance information corresponding to information received by said communication device, the guidance information being generated by inputting landmark data or landscape data which serve as landmarks in a plurality of line-of-sight directions upon approaching or existing from each of the plurality of guide points of the structure information.
The present invention may provide a destination guidance data acquisition method which comprises: generating structure information by designating a plurality of guide points on the premises of the building and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points on a structural drawing of the premises of a building; storing the structure information; generating guidance information by inputting landmark data or landscape data, which serve as landmarks in a plurality of line-of-sight directions upon approaching or existing from each of the plurality of guide points of the structure information; storing the guide information for each guide point; and presenting at least one of the structural drawing of the premises of the building, the structure information, and the guidance information.
The present invention may provide a computer readable memory storing a guidance program, the guidance program which comprises: means for causing a computer to present a structural drawing of premises of a building; first generation means for causing a computer to generate structure information by designating a plurality of guide points on the premises of the building and route data indicating moving routes that connect the plurality of guide points on the presented structural drawing of the premises of the building; second generation means for causing a computer to generate guidance information by inputting landmark data or landscape data, which serve as landmarks in a plurality of line-of-sight directions upon approaching or existing from each of the plurality of guide points of the structure information; and means for causing a computer to send the structure information and the guidance information for each guide point to the server.